Dalic appointment pays off for Croatia

• Zlatko Dalic was allocated Croatia manager only final month
• Led his organisation to feat in Ukraine and by a play-offs
• Luka Modric has called for him to be handed a permanent contract

“Failure was not an option.”

These were a difference of Croatia manager Zlatko Dalic after final night’s FIFA World Cup play-off triumph, and they practical both to his organisation and to him personally.

Dalic, after all, was allocated final month on a short-term basis, initial to drive Croatia by a critical organisation qualifier in Ukraine and afterwards to manage a play-off opposite Greece. Asked afterwards if a new male would be a permanent deputy for a sacked Ante Cacic, HNS boss Davor Suker was non-committal. “Coaches live by their results,” he said. “We will see what happens.”

Dalic embraced a short-term event though, and was certain from a outset. “I know it’s a large pressure, yet we will stay calm,” he pronounced forward of a play-off. “I feel beautiful, since I’m manager of my inhabitant organisation – one of a best inhabitant teams in a world.”

The 51-year-old former Al Ain coach’s faith, both in himself and in his team, was of march irreproachable by a 2-0 win in Ukraine and a resounding 4-1 total delight over a Greeks. Those formula seem certain to lead to a longer-term agreement being signed, with Luka Modric creation plain a opinion of Croatia’s players.

“It would be crazy if Dalic wasn’t a manager [for a World Cup],” a Real Madrid midfielder pronounced after final night’s 0-0 pull in Greece cumulative their place during Russia 2018. “He has finished a unusual job.”

World Cup 2018! pic.twitter.com/MUBSBZtroh

— Zlatko Dalić (@DalicZlatko) November 12, 2017

Dalic himself was medium about his grant to Croatia’s success. “I did not have to do much. we mostly talked to my players,“ he pronounced final night.

”This gift is also as many down to a before manager and comes as a outcome of his work. We are a really good organisation and disaster to validate for a World Cup was not an option.

”I honour my players. It was a good diversion tonight, full of tension, and we’ve achieved what we had set out to do and are going to Russia.

“We played a truly overwhelming diversion in Zagreb in a initial leg; tonight it was many harder. But it was never critical for me who would be a opponents in this play-off, since we was assured that we would win whoever we played against.”

With players such as Modric, Ivan Rakitic, Mario Mandzukic and Ivan Perisic during his disposal, Dalic’s certainty was understandable. But it is value remembering that Croatia had picked adult only 4 points from as many games before to his appointment, with defeats in Iceland and Turkey and a pull during home to Finland carrying cost them involuntary qualification.

The Croatians are, though, play-off specialists. By saying off Greece, they have now prevailed in all 5 of their play-offs for vital tournaments, carrying formerly reached a 1998 and 2014 FIFA World Cups, and a UEFA European Championships of 2004 and 2012, by this means.

As Modric said: “The qualifiers were hard, yet we are where we belong. We maybe didn’t play during a turn we know tonight, yet a outcome is many important. We were lacking appetite and concentration, yet we all fought as one.”

Well done!
Russia, here we come! #BeProud #Croatia #Vatreni #WCQ @EuroQualifiers @FIFAWorldCup #RoadToRussia #ZajednoDoRusije pic.twitter.com/oMdoZF20Fv

— HNS | CFF (@HNS_CFF) November 12, 2017

Article source: http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/y=2017/m=11/news=dalic-appointment-pays-off-for-croatia-2919810.html